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168 sats \ 2 replies \ @Scoresby 1 Jul \ on: DOC • The secret of good metaphors Design
It is kind of amazing how strongly the paper metaphor has shaped my understanding of computers. There really isn't any reason we didn't go with branches and leaves or child and parents or some other metaphor for the way data is structured in a computer: but files and folders is what we have. No question, computers would be different if our metaphors for understanding them had been different.
It's like you make a tool to get something done, but the shape of the tool and it's repetitive use changes your body and before you know it, you have become something different because of your tool. But metaphors are doing this to our minds.
You put a sidewalk and a bench on a street and all of a sudden you get a community. The same is true for the choice of metaphor we have in describing a thing. I'm definitely not as conscious of this as I should be: metaphor choice is a design tool. (also does this mean all writers are designers? because writers shape thought and understanding...designing the mindspace?)
Also: thanks for finding this article. Excellent!
The fact that we continue reflecting the reality inward, instead of accepting that everything goes outward from our mind is for me a bit funny.
Finding the metaphors in each epoch that best represented the how-the-"brain"-works idea to describe really well what are really the limits of what we see impose to us.
Looking at it in the other way around, all these innovations we surround ourselves with are the purest expression our minds can express. Who knows what we'll be capable of in the near and the far-far future.
Either way, I agree metaphors are a great tool to position ourself in a better place, in space and time if we like. There's a great book about... the metaphors we live by I mentioned somewhere before.
One of my preferred bookmarks #536790
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I think writers are metaphor crafters!
The trick lies in using original metaphors that are quirky yet remain accessible to most readers. Thoughtful writing without resorting to the run-of-the-mill ones
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